I
n another case, a choir
performed at Lutherwood,
a residential treatment for
adolescents, right before
Christmas. “The ICC singers saw that
their peers at Lutherwood face some
really challenging situations at home.
It struck a chord because here it was
at the holiday season, and the kids
at Lutherwood didn’t have a home
to go to,” said Don Steffy, executive
director of the Indianapolis Children’s
Choir. “So the singers came to their
director and asked if, as part of
Children Helping Children, they could
do something more to help.”
The ICC learned that
Lutherwood’s greatest need was for
pajamas, socks, and underwear. ICC
students collected bags and bags of
these items, and they have continued
this collection each December.
In another story, an ICC book drive
filled an entire library at a new IPS
school that was opening in a lowincome neighborhood of Indianapolis.
Another time, an ICC choir assembled
1,000 winter homeless kits in just a
couple of hours.
Five years after its inception,
Children Helping Children has grown
into a mainstay of the ICC experience.
ICC choirs participate in Indy Do Day
every year and continue to look for
ways to engage with and serve the
community; in so doing, they discover
the value of community involvement
and volunteerism. Children Helping
Children also helps ICC singers by
integrating projects into community
service requirements that students
already have through school or honor
societies.
All in all, participating in the ICC
helps young people learn what life
looks like for children and teens not
only in different countries through
tours, but just a few miles away in
their own cities.
ICC Executive Director Don Steffy shares ICC’s impact on Indianapolis
“That spirit of giving back is really
strong with the ICC, because it
enriches the experience of not only
of ICC but students’ musicality as
a whole,” said Steffy. “When our
students sing music or when they’re
reading texts, they start to relate some
of these other experiences into the
fabric of their singing and it becomes
even stronger.”
Elevating the Profile of
Indianapolis
In addition to engaging with local
organizations, the Indianapolis
Children’s Choir is raising the profile
of Indianapolis by contributing to its
reputation as a city with a world-class
arts scene.
“When people look at moving
to Indianapolis, they look at the
job market, the housing, the
transportation, but they also have
families and look for cultural
activities where they can engage,”
explained Steffy. “We have fantastic
cultural institutions: the Indianapolis
Symphony Orchestra, the Indiana
Repertory Theatre, the Indianapolis
Museum of Art, and—of course—
the Indianapolis Children’s Choir.
All of these arts institutions make
Indianapolis an attractive place to live
and work.”
For those who are born and
raised in central Indiana, teaching
Hoosier children to appreciate the
arts helps build a stronger society
for tomorrow. “If you don’t have the
arts, the community dies, right?”
said Turae Dabney. “I think the arts
help us to express ourselves in
different ways, and if we don’t express
ourselves in productive ways, we see
consequences. When I think about
music, I think about the arts impacting
our community in a different way.”
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